Maryl - So when you saw Midnight Castle and When Royals Dream almost together, which did you like best. I've always thought When Royals Dream looked like a fabulous purple too. When the heat index is 100, SC Francis Busby fades a bit. It is very bright in the "red bed." With scape blast and one of the Julie Newmar seedlings taking over the seedling bed and robbing the others of shade, I can't get accurate stats on Valentine Sweetheart. At this point, VS has better increase and reliable rebloom but a bud count of only 8-9. The sib has developed rebloom and has a bud count of 14. Since they do have differences - one with the gold edge and the other with the white, I might end up introducing both of them as some point. VS had one fabulous scape developing before the blast, and I thought it was going to develop the lateral branching. Because of the rain wave followed by the heat wave, I could not risk moving VS to the new evaluation bed I made. If I ever get than one in good soil and enough sunlight, we will see what she can do. Both are shorter than I would like - 24 inches tall.

im wondering about the crazy stone patio .... and about the tree looking telephone poled .... and what would happen to the patio.. if the tree fell over ??? the bark may have lightened due to increased sun since pruning.. normal and irrelevant ... ALL evergreen plants shed needles.. its basically cyclical ... according to the plant ... and also ... as it probably is in this case.. increased due to stress .... not to mention increased sun on parts were newly exposed to sun due to the injury and pruning .... if you note as fall progresses ... around town.. you might notice it happening on various pine trees ... with varying degrees .... there is only one thing you can do about it ... and that is focus on the growth tips.. and if those are properly green.. and look OK .. then you are all set for next year ... if the tree trunk was buried significantly.. when ever the patio was built.... the tree is probably dying in tree time.. and removal is probably the only option ... but counting in tree time .. decades.. this might happen a decade from now .. who knows .... again ... there is little you can do about the tree .. and the decision might be more about the patio ... and its possible destruction .... this MIGHT all happen in very slow motion ... and i am addressing a consideration ... i do not mean to make you flip out and worry about it .. its not like its leaning over the house ... ken

Ooh.. 'Could be' is probably about the best I can say. But, honestly, I can't really remember clearly now all the variations of how it looks. I even googled after posting that comment, and immediately started to doubt my memory of those long, elegant buds I thought remembered - including from past photos of Jackie's plant.. Although it doesn't look quite the way I remember it, I do think that bud of yours looks like a lot of the pics I saw online. Maybe the prickly, not-so-red-canes will get redder and smoother as the plant gets older, and/or redder in colder weather? Jackie or Brandon would def be more reliable judges than I...

The premise and title of the linked article relate to "evacuation being impossible". I haven't heard of any such reports but do you know, were any of the fatalities people who died while complying in a timely manner with evacuation orders? "Government culpability", to the extent there is any, isn't responsible for weather phenomena. It would be a challenge to name many, if any, states or local governmental entities to hold up as examples of high-level performance and achievement. In the end, the effectiveness of laws and policies depend on the actions of competence of elected officials, to enact needed laws, and the work of governmental employees to carry out their needed functions. Not enough of them are as capable as their jobs require. I think everywhere has examples of government dysfunctionality leaving people without infrastructure and services they expect and need. It's certainly true where I live. At other times, the forces of natural phenomena create problems beyond what may have been expected. (Remember the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989? A whole section of the top level of the two decker Bay Bridge broke off at one spot, sending moving vehicles to the deck below and causing a few fatalities as I recall. Nearby, an entire raised freeway collapsed, killing over 40 people. Were these avoidable?) At times like this, it needlessly makes people vulnerable in ways that could have been avoided. It's too bad but it is reality.